


The Daily Bleeds

by CaptainRivaini



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Family, Femslash, Friendship, Gen, Violence, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-06
Updated: 2013-06-28
Packaged: 2017-12-10 14:28:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainRivaini/pseuds/CaptainRivaini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michonne thought she would start off on this world alone. Andrea thought she wasn't going to last a day. Amy thought they'd last forever. Dale thought that them going with a stranger was suicide. They were all wrong and now they only have each other to rely on. Andrea/Michonne, Andrea centric</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Don't Say I'm Dyin'

* * *

**A** ndrea started up the car of her old Chevrolet Malibu SS, revving the engine with a joyous laugh at how it hummed nicely under her feet and how she could feel the sensations travel up from her feet to rest at the bottom of her spine. It was beautiful and all hers for the journey of the road trip around America her and Amy were planning, so what else could make this trip any better right?

She glanced at her watch and at realizing the time she turned in her seat to yell up at the house she was parked a few feet from, the smile on her face erasing most of the impatience in her voice. “Amy! Hurry up! At this rate we won’t make it to Atlanta before the nights out!”

“Maybe if you got off your ass and helped me with my luggage we wouldn’t be falling behind schedule!” A rattled cry came from the house and with a laugh Andrea opened the door of her car to rush on ahead up the pathway to see what the damn hold up was this time.

It was as Amy had said, she had been struggling with her luggage and now her face was all sweaty and red as though she resembled a tomato; it was almost cute to look at if Andrea didn’t feel like laughing so much at the pout that had come across her sister’s face.

“You look like you need a hand,” Andrea teased with her arms crossed against her chest, laughing again when Amy flipped the finger at her without knowing both their parents were behind the girl and giving their youngest daughter two very amused looks behind her back. “It’d be a shame if something happened to your back, carrying all that heavy luggage.”

Amy growled at her with a shake of her head, “I think you need to go fuc- hey dad, mom!” Her younger sister cried out in surprised as two pair of hands wrapped around Amy’s bag to lift it up from their younger daughter. “I didn’t see you there! Hey mom you can put that down honestly, guys its cool, Andrea can carry it.”

The lawyer shared a smile with her parents before she turned her back on her family to make her way back down the pathway to her car, hands in her pockets and a sway to her step as she looked back at the people following her. “Can’t help I’m afraid,” she said with a teasing smile over her shoulder. “My hands are full.”

“You’re an idiot and nobody likes you,” Amy called back to her and Andrea laughed, ignoring the other girl as she got to her car to pull the door open so that she can slip back into her seat with her hands on the wheel, prepped and ready to go.

It took a few more minutes of huffing and muttering until Amy finally joined Andrea in the passenger seat of the car, her blonde mane mussed in tangled knots and her eyes rimmed red due to all the heat. It almost made Andrea feel guilty for not helping but Amy was a big girl; she could certainly look after herself considering the amount of times the younger girl threw that at her whenever Andrea arrived too late for events like family dinners and the like – it was always enough to make the older blonde’s mood sour but she had grown used to Amy’s anger when it came to everything she had missed out in her younger sister’s life by just merely accepting the fact she had more than enough time to make up for it.

Hell, this road trip? This was only the start of twelve year make up of Andrea not being in Amy’s life enough that it had caused a wedge between them both, but like she had just said there was time, there would be enough time to resolve it anyway and so Andrea decided not to dwell on it any further as she revved the car’s engine again, turning to smile at her smirking sister.

“You ready to start off then?” Andrea asked, looking behind her to see that her father was making her way over to them both, a small, metal suitcase in his hand that Andrea recognized used to be her grandfather’s old handgun set that he had promised her when she had been just a little girl and had wanted to grow up like a superhero and not the lawyer she was today.

Her father stopped at her door, the bald spot on his head shining in the sun as he leaned over to settle the case onto his eldest daughter’s lap with an unhappy sigh escaping his lips. “I shouldn’t have to tell you what this for her girls,” their father sighed, his hand coming up to scratch at gristles on his chin. “But this is just in case any trouble happens and you need to use this to get out of it. Can you tell me what’s in here?”

Andrea rolled her eyes at her father, “dad I’m 36, I know what a gun…”

“It’s a Mark XIX Desert Eagle handgun!” Amy interrupted, looking at her sister smugly before taking it off the other woman’s lap to examine it closely with her eyes shining brightly at the sunlight the glinted off the metal case. “Granddad used to say that if I found out the name before he died I could have it, but you know _that never happened_ because _someone_ claimed it for themselves…”

“And it’s staying Andrea’s too, I trust her with it more than I trust you Amy,” her father said with wide eyes, reaching over to grab at the handle of the suitcase to settle it back on the elder blonde’s lap. “From previous experience especially; you almost shot Tamsin in the knee just last weekend.”

Andrea smirked at the memory, but eventually loosened that smirk when she realized her father was looking at her with those eyes that meant serious business. It was something Andrea knew not to take lightly, no matter the circumstances.

Her father patted her on the arm and gestured towards the gun in her lap, “I’m giving you that because me and your mother want you to be safe so I expect _you_ to be sensible enough not to go flashing that thing around. The trip you’re doing? It’s long and you’re going to meet people who aren’t like the people in Florida but…”

“Dad, stop,” she interrupted with a fond smile, reaching up to grab the hand that he had placed on her arm to squeeze it comfortingly. “Dad, me and Amy will be fine – you need to stop worrying. I’ll make sure to call you each night wherever we stay and send postcards whenever I can, there’s not much else I can do to keep away trouble apart from not going.”

“And we’re definitely not doing that,” Amy huffed, still peeved that Andrea had been the one her father had given responsibility to. “C’mon already, we’re going to be late in getting to the motel we booked outside of Atlanta.”

Andrea hit at her sister in response to her rudeness but her father just smiled and chuckled softly, leaning in to press a kiss to each of their heads before tapping gently at Andrea’s car door, his eyes gesturing towards the beaten road of their street that would be their ticket out of Florida and into the rest of the world stretched out before them.

“Guess you better get going before me and your mom try and convince you to stay,” he said in that tender voice that he always used when Amy was staying over at the university for long as hell projects or Andrea was leaving the family home to go on business meetings around the world. It’s the voice that Andrea loved and loathed because it has two very opposite effects on her and right now she can’t think of which one she’s feeling.

Andrea reached up to press a kiss to his cheek, mouthed ‘I love you both’ to her father before revving the engine one last time and setting off with Amy’s music already blaring through the busy streets of their hometown.

* * *

**T** hey were speeding through the highway to head towards the intersection that would lead them to the motel practically right outside of Atlanta when Amy spoke.

“Can’t we stop at a firearms shop? Chucks? There’s one just near the city and if we…” Amy’s words had made Andrea swerve slightly on the road and her head snapped to the side in irritation at the sound of horns coming her way when she finally managed to get back on the right track of the highway.

“Are you crazy? Dad said no to you having a gun and I’m not lying to him just because your finger’s getting itchy,” Andrea reprimanded her sister with an annoyed hiss escaping her, glancing over to see that her younger sister’s fingers _were_ literally twitching over the cuffs of the metal case, “seriously Amy no way are we stopping, it’s nearing dark and I’d really love to get some sleep before we head into Atlanta tomorrow.”

Amy rolled her eyes and kicked up her feet to rest on the dash, ignoring Andrea’s protests by lazily placing her fingers in her ears for the rest of the journey.

Andrea only smirked widely in reply.

They arrived at the Red Roof Inn just outside of the border of Atlanta with just a few more hours of sunlight to spare, their ticket for their parking stuck firmly in the back pocket of Andrea’s jeans and their suitcases locked away in the car’s trunk as they took only a change of clothes, their toiletries and of course the metal suitcase containing their only source of protection from the inhabitants of Atlanta.

Once they got to their room Amy had already dibbed the shower and was in there before Andrea could even protest that well, hello, she had been one driving for nearly 6 hours and deserved it more, but that was before and when she saw her sister giggle and rush into the other room she found any sort of protest dying on her lips to be replaced with a fond chuckle.

The trip was planned to be around 6 months before both of them had to return to their sunny home in Florida, Amy to carry on her university studies whilst Andrea had to pack up and leave straight away to head to London where she would be attending a business meeting that would last for three weeks. It was a busy life and Andrea wanted to live all the spare time she had to the fullest, hence why she was here in the first place.

She planned to spend the week in Atlanta first, seeing any sights that they had missed before on their other visits (hers more regular than Amy’s in particular) with their family before heading back for a brief visit of Macon to see some relatives _and then_ carry on their journey. If Andrea was lucky she’d be able to stop Amy complaining about having a lack of gun by the second day, it would certainly help her with escaping from all the whining and that could be only be a good thing.

“Oh god the shower setting in here is amazing!” Amy called out from the bathroom, startling Andrea from her thoughts as she idly walked to and from each corner of their shared room, her sister’s voice enough to make her pause and shake her head with a fond grin. “Yeah let’s not go back to Florida, me and you should just travel the world and crash in motels all the time, but only if they have awesome showers, otherwise hell no.”

Andrea chuckled and made her way over to the window of their room, “keeping it all in perspective Amy.” She cocked her head to the side at the sight of what looked like to be a brawl that was happening outside, two men grabbing at each other with one lunging completely at the other so that they both fell to the ground, limbs thrashing.

The blonde lawyer resisted the urge to open the window and call out to them by remembering that this time was hers and Amy’s time together, and if she wanted to even start getting back into Amy’s good books then she shouldn’t ruin it by allowing her work and what she did there to slip into their road trip. It was difficult to ignore but Andrea cared far more about her relationship with Amy at this moment than two (probably drunk) men fighting outsider her window.

“Yeah well someone has to,” Amy’s voice filtered into the room, distracting Andrea enough that she glanced back behind her to the source of the noise before she returned in watching the two men brawl. The one that had fallen onto the man was still towering over his companion, his hands looking like they were being brought to his chin as he leant over the still floored man.

Andrea arched a brow at the sight and shook her head with a sigh, moving to close the blinds so she wouldn’t feel the need to see anymore of whatever was happening outside and intervene: it was her vacation and thus she could relax, right? Right, of course she could.

She pulled open the suitcase she had laid down on hers and Amy’s shared bed, eyes immediately going to the silver holster that had her grandfather’s initials carved into them, the small A.H shining dimly in the small, almost faded light which the lamp on the bedside cabinet provided. It was a reminder of simpler times when she had been young and Amy hadn’t even been thought of, before a time where Andrea had been far too preoccupied with getting the boy next door to notice her and a time where a scraped knee was the worst thing in the world.

Andrea placed the handgun back in its case before she looked over her shoulder briefly to see to her surprise that Amy had appeared out from her shower with one of the motel’s dressing gowns already thrown onto her form, a sight that shouldn’t have really surprised her but did so regardless when her sister bounded towards her with an excitement that only barely made her halt next to Andrea’s side as she took in the gun laid out on their bed.

“If we got you a sheriff hat and some boots you could totally be a cowboy,” Amy murmured with a teasing smirk, bumping her hip into Andrea’s and making her sway. “I’m sure you’d lure in some rugged rednecks for us both to have fun with, those assholes dig that sort of crap, right?”

Andrea smiled wryly but the smile didn’t reach her eyes as she peered back over her shoulder to watch the window that was now cut off from her by the blinds. She really wished she hadn’t seen what she had because now it was getting harder and harder to ignore and it was starting to stress her enough that when she looked back she could see Amy’s eyes softening in worry and that hurt more than anything.

Damn it all, it hadn’t even been a day and she was already screwing this up for her sister.

She forced a smile on her face, refusing to do anything _but_ smile as she cupped her sister’s cheek and patted it gently with eyes roaming towards their door before settling back on her sister’s face. “Get dressed,” she ordered with her hand opening the suitcase again to place the gun into the back of her jean pockets, pulling her shirt down to cover it up. “We’re going out to the bar in the motel and if you want me to lure into some rednecks then you’ve got to at least look presentable.”

Amy looked at her with an almost childlike innocence - something Andrea had missed about the other girl when she had been growing up, her life preoccupied by work, work and more work – before she clapped her hands together in excitement and tugged Andrea into a hug, wet hair pressed against Andrea’s face to smother her into silence.

When the girl pulled back Andrea could only give her a small pat on the head before her sister rushed back into the bathroom, already babbling on about how she was going to get ‘piss-drunk without having to worry about any creeps groping me’ with such joy that Andrea couldn’t find it within herself to tell her sister any differently.

She waited for Amy to get dressed for a whole two minutes of distracting herself by counting the swirl patterns on the ceiling before Andrea realized there was no way she was going to be able to keep her mind off what was happening outside if she didn’t go look one last time, hence why it took only two long strides and a quick swish of her wrist to pull up the blinds and reveal the darkening parking lot to her eyes once again.

There was nobody there but the small splatters of blood that stained the parking lot floor spoke volumes and with a sigh Andrea turned away, gulping down the sickness she felt at not doing anything to prevent that from happening. It was unfair to blame it all on Amy but when had anything even been fair? She just hoped that whoever got hurt would be on the mend soon and that’s all she could hope for really, this was her vacation and she would be damned if she would spend most of it filing a case for someone when she could be having the time of her life with her sister.

“You ready to go Amy?” She called out to the young blonde, hands going to the back of her shirt to make sure the handgun was still there before reaching over to grab her jacket from the hook and pulling it on to help cover the obvious bump.

Her sister rushed out of bathroom with a little jump and a laugh, grabbing Andrea’s hand and pulling her out of the door with not much room for protest. It looked like tonight would set the standards for the rest of their vacation and for some reason Andrea couldn’t find it within her to mind.

* * *

“ **W** ell, you look lonely.”

Andrea turned to acknowledge the voice next to her, her brow arched in curiosity as she took in the sight of a man in a blue velvet suit too fine to be worn at a shoddy bar like this one and how the man himself seemed to be unable to stop smiling at her no matter the growing disinterest on her face. Perhaps once upon a time she would have taken the chance but she didn’t know the guy and she didn’t appreciate being told she looked lonely when in truth she was waiting for Amy to return from…wherever she had gone.

She wouldn’t normally have minded but damn this was her vacation and if she wanted to sip margaritas by herself then she would, alright? Not that she was alone, but the point still stood! The nerve of some people…

Still she supposed it wouldn’t exactly be right to chew the guy out for trying; looks like she’d have to play nice for a while or at least pull his strings a little, she might even get a free drink out of it.

“Bet you say that to every girl you see at a bar by herself,” Andrea muttered with a playful roll of her eyes that caused the man to snicker loudly as he sat by her, his hand already up in the air to signal a passing bar staff nearby, “before you slowly charm your way into her head.”

The man ordered two shots of vodka for them both before he gestured to way over the other end of the room. “And two for my friend’s sister and her little snare for the night.”

Andrea froze at that and turned her gaze slightly to see that the man had pointed right at her sister who by the looks of it was conversing with a baby-faced looking boy who couldn’t be older than nineteen but had the boldness of a man much older, that was if the sight of his hands going down further and further to Amy’s ass wasn’t some sort of drunken hallucination anyway.

“Wouldn’t worry about it too much,” the man next to her said with a brief chuckle, hand coming upwards to cup his cheek as he stared intently at her with an almost boyish glint in his eyes as he took in the roundness of her face and how tight her jaw had clenched at the sight of some guy’s paws all over her sister. “Terry’s a good boy; he won’t do anything that’ll make you worry. Besides…If he takes after his dad he’ll be a right gentleman.”

That didn’t reassure the blonde whatsoever but at the same time she inwardly cursed herself for being so uptight over something like this, it wasn’t as if Amy hadn’t flirted around with guys before so why should she worry anyway? This ‘Terry’ was just having a little bit of fun, and it wasn’t as if Amy would see him ever again.

Well, she hoped not.

“As long as he keeps his hands to himself then I’m fine with it,” Andrea muttered towards the man next to her, reaching over his long, dark arms to take the vodka shot that had just appeared in front of him. “My name’s Andrea by the way if you were thinking of trying to chat me up.”

Again that brought a smile on the man’s face. “Can’t chat you up I’m afraid no matter how pretty you are, got a girlfriend back home who’d kick my ass if I even tried.”

“Oh, well that’s good, I’m a hard girl to pin down,” Andrea said with a shrug of her shoulders, trying to ignore the disappointment that had managed to creep its way up on her. It wasn’t as if she had wanted to sleep with the guy but seeing Amy around this guy’s friend and flirting around made it hard to ignore how the last relationship she had been in had happened two years ago with her fiancé running out on her the night before the wedding – the asshole. “I still don’t know your name.”

God, how desperate did that make her sound? Pretty desperate she guessed.

He stuck out a hand for her to take and shook it profusely when she did, smiling cheerfully at the bewildered look that had come over her face at the power of his shake. “Mike,” he told her, his smile wide and contagious that it was a matter of seconds before Andrea found herself smiling back. “Mike Pritchett, my friend over there is Terry Prince. We’re just stopping here to book me and my girlfriend a room for a few days to get away from it all back in the city.”

And as if she wanted confirmation of that the man dug into his suit pocket for a moment before pulling out a picture to lay out on the bar they both sat at, his fingers turning said picture to reveal a woman with dreads pulled up into a bun that were so thick Andrea found herself feeling somewhat sympathetic. The woman was wearing a casual Falcon’s football shirt that nearly went down to her knees and her bare legs were pulled up to rest just below her chin, allowing for the woman to rest it there as she smiled in an almost sulky fashion at whoever was taking the photo.

Andrea said the first thing that came to her mind, not wanting to be impolite. “She’s pretty. You always tell strangers your personal life?”

Mike shrugged and Andrea was slightly grateful of the fact he didn’t look offended in the least. “I like showing my girlfriend off, like you said, she’s damn pretty and I’m proud to say she’s mine – besides, didn’t want you thinkin’ I’m hitting on you.”

That made her laugh as she gulped her vodka shot down, shaking her head slightly to try and clear her senses away from everything. Of course a guy wouldn’t be hitting on her, it’s not like she was pretty or anything, or maybe that was just the drink talking and was making her feel goddamn petty about herself.

Her eyes glanced back over to where her sister and this Terry was still canoodling in a corner, his one hand wrapped around her sister’s waist whilst the other stroked her hair lovingly as though she was the most delicate flower he had ever come across; the sight of it made her stomach squirm in discomfort at how it had been so long since anyone had held her like that. She had had flings there and then, but nothing like what she was witnessing right now, just quick fucks and nights where she couldn’t remember anything at all apart from how she found it hard to walk later on that day due to the burning of her groin.

She was pleased that this guy had unknowingly kept to his word by not doing anything else Andrea deemed unworthy and she was just about to leave it alone when she noticed something that made her stop and for her heart to jump right in her mouth, horrified, suspicious and curious all at the very same time.

He was wearing a bandage over his left arm, a bandage that looked pretty thick but even so she could still make out the reddening of the blood that was starting to seep through the material; the sight of it was not easy to forget in a hurry and with a gasp Andrea felt the memories of seeing the blood splatters on the parking lot coincide with the scene she was witnessing now.

She got up quickly from her seat, ignoring Mike’s expression of surprise and started to make her way over to the pair when Terry seemed to ultimately collapse on her sister, his form weighing Amy down so much that Andrea had to watch as her sister clung onto one of the poles that held the bar up to try and balance them both out.

“Shit! Andrea, help!” Amy called out to her and within seconds Andrea was already there, reaching out to pull the man off her sister and hold him up as best as she could, eyes looking over his face to see if there was anything she could recognize from the man who she had witnessed fighting in the parking lot before.

He was of the same stature as the man who had been taken by surprise by the other guy and his size seemed to fit the picture too, along with the bandage Andrea could be holding up someone who was either a victim or the criminal in the situation.

Those thoughts were wiped from the front of her mind instantly when she felt how hot he had gotten under her touch and how his breath was ragged and wheezy against her cheek as she held him up, using most of her body weight to press him up against the pole in order to wrap one of his arms around her shoulders.

“What the hell happened?” Mike’s voice shot through the steady jazz music of the bar, the sound of it making Andrea glare in the man’s direction in order to silence him, she was curious to know what had happened too but freaking out on them? Not a good thing to do right now.

Mike freaking out seemed to trigger that in Amy too and Andrea had to watch in horror as her sister’s face scrunched up in panic, her body trembling as she shrugged her shoulders at the both of them.

“I don’t know!” Amy cried out helplessly, looking at her older sister for some sort of help against this emotional onslaught she was being put under. “We were just talking and he said he was feeling a bit ill so we was just going to sit down and then, and then…Well look at him Andrea! He’s in a bad way!”

Andrea glared at the both of them. “Alright, calm down, the both of you,” she turned towards the man who had Terry’s other arm. “Mike, me and my sister will help you take Terry to a car so you can take him to Atlanta’s hospital, it shouldn’t be far.”

Mike’s face became withdrawn and he chewed on his lower lip before answering, eyes drawn to the floor. “Can’t do that I’m afraid, me and Terry here got here in a taxi. We ain’t got no car to get back to Atlanta.”

Andrea resisted the urge to yell at all three of them, she’s exhausted from driving for 6 hours and she really didn’t want to spend the first night of this vacation in some stupid hospital in Atlanta just because some guy didn’t use his brain and think that bringing a car would probably be a more sensible idea than getting a fucking taxi.

“It’s okay me and Andrea will give you and Terry a ride,” Amy said with a flippant wave of her hand, already moving through the bar to get towards the exit of the inn, practically volunteering her service in a way that made Andrea’s jaw clench because god damn it all, can’t she get a break around here?

She didn’t really get why she was that bothered but these two guys suddenly need helping? It’s fishy and she’s immediately suspicious.

Still she can’t protest even as she lugged the trembling guy forward through the bar, her eyes darting to the side to meet Mike’s for a flicker of a second. “You said you were getting away from something that happened in Atlanta? That why you don’t have a car?”

Mike in all fairness looked absolutely exhausted at her question and in spite of the suspicion she felt Andrea can actually find herself feeling sorry for him as he staggered slightly towards the exit, his face haggard looking and his steps feeble as though he was trying to get away from something that had given him this haunted look in the first way.

“Some weird shit’s happening in Atlanta, told my girl I’d only be up here for a few hours to book us a room,” Mike told her, his eyes dropping to the floor to avoid her gaze. “Was true but Terry got distracted and I didn’t want to disturb him. Everyone with any sort of illness was being told to go to the hospital and nobody’s allowed out after night so I thought maybe if we escaped for a few days until everything went back to normal…”

Andrea can’t help but become distracted at that one little titbit of information, she can’t help it even though she pretty much knew she should be focusing trying to open the inn’s damn door to get to the parking lot but she can’t help herself; she needed to know what the hell was going on.

“There’s a problem in Atlanta?” She asked before losing her temper and yelling for Amy who’s standing by the car not doing much but freaking out which is not helping whatsoever. “Damn it Amy! A little help would be appreciated!”

Her tone is scathing and honestly it made Andrea feel like shit but if this guy expects his friend to be alright then she needed a bit of help, alright? Her anger is understandable, especially with how bone tired she feels.

Why did Amy always have to play the saint and make her look bad anyway? Where the hell was the fairness in _that?_

“Problem happening in all of the cities,” Mike told her just as Amy made her way over to help, gripping at Terry’s front in such an awkward fashion that it almost made Andrea snap at how little her sister is actually helping but she can’t bring herself to do so even if she really wants to, she had already yelled at her sister enough today. “Only started early this morning in the other cities outside of Atlanta, but with Atlanta? It’s been a few days. Nobody’s heard anything off anyone in the hospital and the streets are deserted, it’s only busy when people are going to work, pretending like nothing’s happening.”

They manage to make it to the car in a matter of moments after that, all three of them lugging Terry into the back seat with Amy following in straight after, her hand pressed to Terry’s forehead to check his temperature. She pulled back almost immediately at the barest of touches. “He’s burning up; he said he was feeling ill before but…”

“We need to get him to a hospital,” Mike said as he too clambered into the guy, taking the seat next to Andrea with his eyes wide in fear. “I just hope they let us into the city, but they’ll have to right? Terry’s got a fever; they’ll have to let us in.”

Andrea could only eye him warily before she started up her car’s engine, turning on the radio to calm her nerves as she drove off towards Atlanta.

_Good evening America, this is your national radio host Cliff Tyrone and I’m here to announce the following message: stay in your homes, every city is now on lockdown due to an event that is affecting those ill and diseased. We advise those outside of the city to remain out until the situation is under control. Those who attempt to approach the city will be asked to leave immediately. Stay safe and keep out of the cities. I repeat, stay safe and keep out of the cities._

She drove on, eyes attached firmly on the road ahead.

 

 

 

 

 


	2. The Clock's A Tickin'

The drive to Atlanta was just as exhausting as the drive had been to the inn from Florida, though this time more people were in her little Malibu and one of them had a temperature that Andrea still feel emanating from him even with the wind whipping at her face.

She still felt as though the whole thing was extremely fishy, what with everything going on in Atlanta and now these two guys practically climb into her car? If Andrea was an even MORE suspicious woman than she already was her first thought would be that this whole thing was nothing more than a practical scheme cooked up by hers and Amy’s parents to try and get them back to Florida, which isn’t entirely nutty.

It’s not as if she’s paranoid or anything, she really wouldn’t be surprised if this was some sort of joke by her parents.

“Not that long until we reach Atlanta, just a few more minutes and they’ll let us in when they see us,” Mike told her as he fiddled with the settings on her car’s radio, his eyes looking more tired than they had the last time Andrea checked a few moments back, “then me and Terry will be out of your hair once we’re back at my house.”

That made Andrea’s brow arch in suspicion, her eyes narrowed in a wariness that had nothing to do with what probably awaited them in Atlanta, “what happened to us dropping you off near the hospital?”

“For crying out loud Andrea, does it even matter? We’re here to help them, not question them on every little thing they do!” Amy yelled at her, the anger clearly laced in her tone enough to make Andrea quieten and slump slightly in her seat with the handgun she had in the back of her pants pressed tightly against her spine.

It hurt that Amy didn’t seem want to do anything but question her every move but Andrea did her best to ignore it by instead focusing her attention onto the road, something that didn’t come easy to her with how her mind was racing like a bedraggled dog and Terry’s whimpers at the back of her filled her head and senses.

When they finally arrived Andrea wasn’t really surprised to see that the gate separating the highway and the road to the city was closed off with a lone guard standing near the entrance, his nervous (almost flimsy) movements enough to tell Andrea that he was inexperienced enough that they would have a chance to get past him without too much trouble.

Mike seemed to agree with her, “hey!” he yelled out to the guard, standing up in his seat and waving frantically to try and grab the man’s attention, “hey we have someone injured here! Can you let us into the city?”

The guard started to make his way over, his helmet with a transparent visor covering everything but his mouth, which meant that Andrea could see the nervous twitch of his smile as he walked towards them, his every movement making Andrea feel uneasy in just watching him walk over.

Even before the guy had reached Andrea’s car the  guard found himself being talked to be youngest of the two sisters, which only caused Andrea to roll her eyes at her sister because honestly? Didn’t Amy think she could handle it from here?

“Hey officer could you please let us into the city? My friend, um, Terry, he isn’t feeling too good you know? And yeah we heard the radio but maybe you could…”

The guard cut her off, arms wrapped across his chest to practically enforce his authority, “if you heard the radio then you know the answer I’m going to give to ya’ll now don’t you? Now get out of here, scram and come back in the morning with the rest of the stragglers.”

“Hey mister now you listen here!” Mike started but immediately found himself being cut off by Andrea herself, having finally gotten impatient enough to get out of her car.

She normally would have just pulled out her card and explain that she was part of the lawyer branch inside of Atlanta but she had a slight inkling that just wasn’t going to cut it around these parts, thus why she instead chose the much easier method of getting into the guy’s face as non-aggressively as she could and holding up her arms to show the guard that she wasn’t going to do anything he would deem inappropriate.

“Sir,” Andrea started with her hands still up in the air in an effort to try and calm everyone down, including Mike and Amy, “I’m called Andrea Harrison and I’m from Florida’s law firm in Naples, I’m sure you’ve heard of the Law Office of Lloyd T.S Velazquez…Ahem, regardless of that, I’d like to give you a fair warning that not listening to my client’s demands? Very bad for your career sir, and believe me you don’t want that now do you?”

From the way his eyes seemed to darken it looked like the guard was either ready to believe her or to call her out on her complete bullshit. For once Andrea found herself at a loss on which one seemed more likely to happen even with the look of clear hesitation that was the twitch of his mouth.

“Why a fancy lawyer come all the way from Florida just to come to Atlanta when there’s been clear instructions on the radio all the way here?” The guard asked, his finger tapping against his cheek to display a rhythm. “I ain’t no fool sweetheart, ya’ll goin’ to need to do more than spin a few stories to get me to open this door for you.”

Andrea bit her lip in frustration and stepped backwards to try and give herself enough time to think of another idea however that soon changed when she saw her younger sister practically rush past her, what looked to be notes of money clasped right in the very middle of her palm.

 _‘We’re paying off security guards now?’_ Andrea thought with a roll of her eyes, sighing angrily against her car door as she watched the scene in front of her play out. She couldn’t actually believe this jackass was actually allowing them to enter the city just because her sister waved cash in his face, yet at the same time she could damn well believe it too because this was Atlanta and the guys around here were so simple to play that it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise that her fiancé had come from here originally.

“Listen it’s just this once so don’t expect any money off us now,” she heard Amy call to the smirking guard as she walked her way back over to Andrea, Mike and Terry, her expression one of general distaste, “just open the gate and we won’t say a thing about you in court, or I’ll make sure _my sister_ doesn’t say a thing about you in court.”

Andrea bit her lip and arched her brow testily at her younger sister as Amy made her way over to her, looking very pleased with herself in spite of the withering glare Andrea was sending the girl’s way.

“What?” Amy asked with a simple shrug and a smile, brushing past Andrea to take her seat next to the still whimpering Terry. “I got us in didn’t I? Without having to resort to _lying_ either.”

“No, you just gave away what I assume to be a large majority of my hard earned money,” Andrea murmured sulkily to herself as she opened the door to her car, catching Mike’s teasing eyes and rolling her own once more (she really had to stop doing that, one day they’d get stuck) at the complete idiocy of it all.

“What was that?” Amy called out just as Andrea started the car, the smugness in her tone not lost on Andrea whatsoever, “did I hear something that sounded strangely like complaining from my sister?”

“Don’t know about your sister, but I think you’re a damn life-saver,” Mike answered for her, something which Andrea ignored with a simple shrug of her shoulders as she slowly started to drive her car towards the now opening gates, glaring at the now smirking guard as she was finally allowed to drive into the city.

God, this whole trip had better be damn worth it and Mike’s pretty girlfriend better give her some thanks too, she would really need some sort of thanks after doing all this and yeah, so what if it made her seem like a bad person? Normally she would have helped no questions asked but today she just couldn’t find it in her and only Amy’s quickness to remind her how much of an ass she’d be if she didn’t was the reason why she was driving this guy back to his house in the first place.

The city looked as though it was from a set of a ghost movie.

The street lights that usually littered the streets with bright yellow light were now just turned down to a low setting, painting the streets in a pale, eerie glow and making the whimpers from Terry at the back of Andrea’s car that much creepier in the deafening silence of Atlanta’s streets.

Mike turned back in Andrea’s Malibu to press a soothing hand on his friend’s face, not flinching away even though a quick glance could tell that he seemed genuinely discomforted by what he felt there.

“His not getting any better, fact is I think he’s getting worse,” Mike informed her with an uncomfortable expression on his face, “head feels hot as hell and his sweating worse than I ever seen, never seen a fever this potent before, or felt one for that matter.”

Amy moved to press a hand to Terry’s arm just above the bandage, recoiling almost immediately and nodding in confirmation when Andrea threw a curious glance her way.

“It’s not good, feels like his arm is on fire more so than anywhere else, what happened to him anyway?” Amy asked Mike, her eyes alight with a suspicion that made Andrea just that little much smugger – finally Amy was starting to realize that the little things were the things that mattered, all the little details that made this situation with Mike and Terry seem so suspicious.

And when Mike’s answer was heard by the both of them? Well…

“I honestly don’t know how to tell you,” he murmured with a shake of his head, reaching over to pat Andrea’s hand on the steering wheel to gain her attention, “I’ll explain when you get us to my girl’s house I promise, just keep going straight up here for now, she don’t live that from the city’s gates.”

Andrea tried not to let her distrust show in her face as she looked at her sister but it obviously didn’t matter either way considering Amy only took one look at her, smiled nervously and said, “you’re not a murderer are you?”

It made Andrea groan even as Mike only laughed.

“No,” he chuckled, giving both of them a wide smile that seemed so strange in the bleak, deserted surroundings of Atlanta, though what wasn’t that strange was that the smile in general didn’t seem to reach his eyes, “just an English Lit teacher, only people I wanna murder are my students.”

“I’m a student,” Amy pointed out with an innocence that made Andrea feel even more frustrated at how her sister gave away personal information away so quickly.

“Better watch out then,” Mike replied, his shoulders visibly sagging as Terry let out another pained yell into the night. 

* * *

Andrea pulled up into an empty driveway in the house next door to their destined location, turning the engine off and allowing herself to relax for the first time since she had left Florida, Naples this morning; and god did it feel good to let in a breather, especially after all the shit she had been put through today.

‘No rest for the wicked though,’ she was instantly reminded when Mike instructed her to go next door and ask ‘his girl’ for help so they could go and help Terry out of the car without dropping the guy – who seemed more dead than alive at that point considering the weight of his arm when Amy had tried to pick him up.

She sighed as she got out of the car, already feeling the tension in her shoulders start to weight her down; she would definitely need a good rest after all this, she just hoped that the receptionist didn’t throw her hat away in the motel room if she arrived back there a little late. Sure that was the only thing she had left in the room considering all of her hers and Amy’s stuff was in the trunk of her car, but that was a damn good hat and she was not leaving it behind for _anyone_.

Andrea made her way over to Mike’s house (taking a brief second to admire how neat the grass was and the nice pond that was in the centre of the lawn) with her hand already poised to knock on the dark blue door, again wondering what the hell she was doing here and why her sister seemed to love getting her into these impossible situations.

She rapped on the door twice and waited for it to open, resting most of her weight on the back of her feet as she waited for Mike’s girlfriend to open the door. Really she was just worried that some sort of government official would come up to her and demand why she wasn’t in doors, which to be frank she didn’t really have a good reason for apart from the fact she had been dragged along on this stupid trip because Amy had wanted to play the hero.

She still didn’t know why she felt so against it, normally she would have been the first to help someone out but again it just didn’t feel right. And that feeling only seemed to grow worse the longer she spent with Mike and his friend, Terry.

Andrea was pulled out of her musings by the sound of the door opening and with what she hoped was a friendly smile she looked up to see that the pretty girl (woman) she had seen in Mike’s picture was now staring at her with a look that resembled confusion, concern and curiosity all in one.

“Can I help you?” She asked with a politeness that Andrea could tell from the get-go was forced considering how late at night someone was knocking on her door, so for that Andrea really couldn’t blame her for being pissy or the very light attire of a simple tank top and boy shorts the woman wore.

And Mike had been right, the girl was pretty and the picture he had shown her hadn’t really done her enough justice even seeing the woman with next to no make-up on; she was more than just a pretty girl, the way her eyes moved sharply over Andrea just made the blonde woman more aware of that than ever. Definitely more than a pretty face, and _that_ Andrea could appreciate.

She would have probably felt the same way if some strange woman had turned up at her door in the middle of the night when the city was supposed to be on lock-down.

“Hi, you don’t know me, I’m Andrea,” she said awkwardly with an equally awkward smile on her face as she moved forward to shake the woman’s hand, retracting when the awkwardness started to show on the pretty woman’s face, “I met up with your boyfriend Mike and his friend Terry…”

The suspicion in the darker woman’s eyes made Andrea cut herself off, a wary smile on her face that kept her bolted to the ground in spite of wanting more than anything to run in the other direction just in case Mike’s girlfriend wanted to skin her alive for being around her boyfriend in the first place; it wouldn’t be the first time Andrea had women yell at her for hanging around their boyfriend’s after all and if this time was to the like all the other times she really doubted it would be the last time she got yelled at like this too.

Which was why she was so surprised to find that the woman in front of her didn’t seem to be yelling at all, “what did Mike do this time?” She said instead, her brow furrowed in frustration as she peered over Andrea’s shoulder to try and catch sight of her boyfriend and his friend, “if he and Terry owe you money then believe me I’ll pay you…”

“No, no! They don’t owe me any money!” Andrea interrupted, hands out in front of her as she stepped back to allow the woman to follow her outside with her large dreads swaying in the night’s cool, breezy wind, the woman’s movements to follow her giving Andrea enough reason to head back towards where her car was parked, “your friend Terry collapsed and has some sort of fever, me and my sister were talking with your boyfriend and friend when it happened so we offered to give them a ride, we just need your help to get Terry and…”

She trailed off at realizing that the woman had rushed off to head towards her car, her departure making Andrea growl in frustration at how nobody seemed to want to listen to her lately, did she have to get a huge placard or something to get attention around here?

“ _Mich!_ Thank god you’re alright! What the hell is going on around here?” Andrea heard Mike call out to the woman as both of them neared her car, the darker woman heading straight to the back of the car where Mike was with his hands already at Terry’s feet and Andrea heading back to where Amy was opening the nearest car door so that they would be able to get Terry out of the car quicker.

“Didn’t you hear the radio?” ‘Mich’ asked her boyfriend, moving around Andrea and Amy to go around the other side of the car – looking apologetically at Andrea for a split second – before she jumped in onto the seats to grab at Terry’s arms, lifting the dead weight of the man up and helping Mike carry him out the car.

Andrea winced and Amy’s hand instantly settled on the crook of her elbow, her smile apologetic and yet amused, “it’s only a car sis, it’s only a car. We’ll get it cleaned when this shit in Atlanta blows over.”

“I really like my car clean,” Andrea whispered as she slammed the door shut, eyes aghast as she glanced over to see the dirty marks on her seats, “I really, _really_ like my car clean.”

Amy only answered her with a brief laugh and a shove before she grabbed Andrea’s hand and led her over to where Mike and his girlfriend were struggling to lug Terry in, both too busy talking even as they attempted to wedge the now shaking Terry throughout the hallway of the house.

Andrea glanced back at her car for a moment before shutting the door behind her, not really knowing what else she and Amy could do now they were here but at the same time realizing that honestly her sister and herself had nowhere else to go right now with this quarantine or something going on.

“Why is Terry like this in the first place?!” Andrea heard Mike’s girlfriend ask him heatedly, her tone one of concern and frustration that seemed to get lost in the static of just plain anger, “and you told me you were going to watch out for him when you were out wherever the hell you were, what happened out there Mike? You said you weren’t going to be long!”

Mike looked as sheepish as Andrea felt in being in the middle of this argument, his sheepishness making him forget himself for a moment as the group finally entered the house’s living room and caused him to drop Terry sluggishly on the nearest couch, the rough movements making his girlfriend look even more impatient at his recklessness.

“Michonne can you just calm down?” He started to explain, hands up in the air to come down onto the dark woman’s shoulders, hands moulding into the soft skin of the woman’s shoulders in an attempt to calm her, “now let’s just get us all something to eat and then I’ll go head up to the hospital and…”

“Nobody’s allowed in the hospitals anymore,” Michonne explained to him, eyes cutting over to Andrea and Amy before returning onto Terry’s trembling form, mouth worried into a frown, “in or out for that matter. My mom hasn’t phoned for the past week because she was in there and my dad is off in France and hasn’t even bothered to phone in and ask how’s everything going, and now this Mike? There’s something crazy going on here in Atlanta and I can’t…”

Andrea swallowed nervously when dark eyes fastened onto her again and yet she couldn’t find it within herself to look away from Mike’s girlfriend no matter how much she yelled at herself to do so, this look seemed as though the woman was trying to tell her to go away but Andrea was just as stubborn (if not more stubborn) than any other person and she would not leave this room until she got some damn light on the situation here.

That didn’t stop her from stiffening and gripping at Amy’s shirt behind her the moment she heard the words _‘and I can’t get in contact with the kids’_ pass the woman’s lips, if she had wanted to hear anymore Andrea decided that now it simply was just not worth it and turned away so she wouldn’t be able to see the look of fear on both of the people’s faces in front of her.

“We’re out of place here,” Amy whispered to her the moment her back was turned and Mike’s question of how long ago had it been since Michonne had contacted them filled their ears, “we should…We can’t just stay here sis, it’s not right. Something’s going on here and we need to go back to Florida and get mom and dad, they’re going to be worried _sick_.”

Andrea thought back to her parents in Florida, probably worrying about her and Amy already with the talk on the radio, hell she was surprised she hadn’t even received a text or call off them just yet demanding that they both came home straight away but considering the awkward situation they were in right now Andrea decided to count it as a blessing more than anything.

She glanced over at her sister, lip between her teeth as she took in the frustrated look on her sister’s face. “We can’t just leave them like this,” she told Amy, refusing to comment on the eye roll she received in reply, “you wanted to play the saint before, there’s no backing out now. The city is in lock down and the hospital’s closed off to people, we haven’t got a choice Amy. We just need to sit back and then we can leave tomorrow, so for now just keep it easy alright?”

Amy shrugged but Andrea could tell her sister wasn’t happy even as she made her way over to sit on the arm of the couch next to Terry, her hand moving outwards to press onto the man’s forehead with a tenderness that made Andrea bite her tongue and turn away from the sight, instead focusing on the still loud talking couple in front of her.

“I’ve tried to call Nick ever since you left this morning,” the thick-haired woman said to Mike, her eyes still flickering to and from the man in front of her, then to Andrea, to Terry and then back onto Mike, “when this outbreak was happening around a week ago I asked him to bring them back to Atlanta but he said he’d be able to handle it, and now look what’s happening. The cities are closing and nobody’s allowed inside the _hospitals._ This isn’t a coincidence Mike, it can’t be.”

Andrea couldn’t ignore the wide-eyed look in Mike’s eyes even if she tried, and the worry? That was hard to miss too even before Mike turned his attention on her, his lips forming into a frown that made Andrea’s stomach sink in both anticipation and worry.

“Guess I owe you an explanation, about everything, about what happened to Terry,” he muttered as he dragged a hand down his face, moving away from all of them to fall down into the nearest armchair in the living room with such a defeated expression that seemed more and more apparent by the flicker of flames from the electric fire next to him that in the brief time Andrea had known the guy it felt like she was seeing Mike right through all the barriers of bravado he had put up back at the motel, “you won’t believe it. But you deserve to know so you know that you didn’t just risk your whole holiday for us two guys, especially when you don’t know jack about us.”

Michonne snorted angrily, her eyes narrowed impatiently at her lover and yet she remained silent with her only weapon being silence, a weapon that from the look of things on Mike’s face was used often and well – Andrea was silently impressed by it she had to admit, she had never quite gotten how to use that trick.

Mike answered Michonne’s look with a shamefaced smile, eyes turned up to meet Andrea’s. “You and your sister asked me why his arm was in bandage, right? Well…He got attacked at the inn by some crazy ass fucker who took a massive bite out of his arm, a real…”

“He got bit by someone?” Amy interrupted even as she stroked the whimpering Terry’s head, her eyes creased in concern and disbelief which was reflected in Andrea’s own gaze at the very thought of someone actually biting someone deep enough that it had to be wrapped up in a bandage, that just simply didn’t make a lick of sense to her, “like…a dog bites a human sorta bite?”

“What do you mean he got bit?” Andrea asked. She tried not to but seeing Terry in such a state and how panicked Mike looked she couldn’t help but think of what she had witnessed at the motel window and the possibilities of what could have occurred there.

Mike’s eyes widened in an almost comical fashion, “I don’t know how to explain it you, I really don’t, but some guy just waltzed up to Terry all crazy and stuff and started to rip at his clothes, like the crazy motherfucker as tryin’ to rip him wide open, when I went over there to sort it out the guy…the guy…”

He swallowed and in that instant Andrea watched as Michonne (someone who had remained completely, almost frighteningly so at Mike’s return) went over to squeeze the man’s arm, her touch instantly soothing Mike enough that he could continue with the story he had been telling.

“Crazy bastard bit him like he was some sort of meat,” Mike whispered to all three of them, “tore a good chunk of his skin right off, when I got the guy off him he tried to attack me too but me and Terry were already running the hell out of there like our asses were on fire, hell, I wouldn’t even question it if they was…”

Andrea watched with growing indecision at the man and his girlfriend and the sharp look that had settled onto Michonne’s facial expression, a look Andrea would bet her own life on was reflected on her own face.

Were Michonne’s thoughts the same as her own? That something just didn’t quite add up in Mike’s story or that Mike, a fairly well built guy, wouldn’t be able to take on one man with Terry at his side?

Andrea remembered the splatter of blood that had stained the car lot’s floor and with that her brow furrowed, her lips pursed and her thoughts thundered restlessly in her head – Mike’s story had holes, big gaping ones that Andrea was determined to fill before the night was out.

“Why didn’t you phone the police?” She enquired, eyes meeting the sharp glint in Michonne’s for a second (flinching at the slight threat in them) before glancing back at Mike, “even with this quarantine I’m sure you would have found _someone_ willing to come out to help you with this investigation.”

“Doesn’t matter anymore, let’s just leave it,” Michonne spoke up, the deep timbre tone startling Andrea from her thoughts, but unfortunately not from the pessimistic view she had of what had occurred back at the motel.

“It just doesn’t make any sense on why your boyfriend and his friend wouldn’t call the police or think it’s a good idea to go to the inn’s bar after being attacked…” Andrea started to explain but was immediately cut off by Michonne’s voice softly speaking over her.

“I said let it go,” Michonne’s face was all hard edges and angry curves, the exact opposite on how she had looked back in Mike’s photo yet Andrea could still admire that the woman was still undeniably pretty even when angry – the distraction in particular being the only reason she had shut up for half a second in the first place, giving Michonne enough time to change the topic.

And still Andrea’s mind raced for an answer, something that would help fill the holes, nonetheless none came and with a sigh Andrea had to admit defeat for now.

When she finally regained her focus Andrea was almost relieved to see the couple moving into the next room, simply due to the fact that with them both gone it could give her some time alone to actually think on what was going on around here.

Andrea yawned and moved towards the armchair that Mike had abandoned to collapse down onto it, hands already moving to her face to cover her tired eyes.

She sat in silence for what felt like hours before Amy’s voice interrupted her thoughts, practically forcing Andrea to forget what she had been wondering in the first place. “What was with all the questioning before? A lawyer thing you do?”

“You don’t think Mike’s story was sort of…” Andrea trailed off before fixing her sister with a steely-eyed look. “Fishy? Like he was trying to hide something?”

Amy shrugged, “well yeah, but it doesn’t really matter now does it? We’re stuck in the shit with them, might as well try and not make enemies around here. Besides the guy attacked him, shouldn’t we be on his side? And Terry’s?”

Andrea repressed the urge to actually reprimand her sister for such idiocy by biting her tongue, now was not the time to actually go crazy at Amy just because she was too trusting of people, it wasn’t as if it was a bad quality after all in spite of how Andrea felt of the quality right now.

She pushed back every negative thought she had right at that moment to focus her attention onto the feverish man that was resting on the couch, eyes softening in sympathy as the man whined and his hands shook as he tried to grip onto the soft cushions that surrounded him. Andrea wished she knew how to soothe his pain, but considering how the hospital was now refusing to have people she knew she couldn’t offer to take him up there for Michonne and Terry, so she was stuck at a bit of an impasse.

Amy was still stroking his head, smooth white hands caressing the dark curls that stuck to his forehead, looking so very much like their mother in that split moment that it made Andrea’s eyes sting with unshed tears before she quickly rubbed them away, not wanting Amy to see how utterly distraught she felt already.

This all seemed like such a bad dream that she would be able to wake up from soon, but even then it was all too much for Andrea to handle even if she knew that nothing could possibly get worse than this on the rest of hers and Amy’s road trip now could it?

Of course not, they’d just have to wait a few days, just a few more days…

“You think he’ll make it through?” Amy asked her all of a sudden, breaking away from her ministrations of stroking Terry’s forehead to stare at Andrea with a slight wonderment on her face, “I’ve had fevers before and all, but this one is burning hot and I always had medication to treat it but this guy…”

“He’ll be fine,” Andrea lied with a slight smile, eyes betraying how she felt as she looked down at the boy in pity. She didn’t quite know if he would survive or not considering how the hospital was now on apparent lockdown but it was only a fever right? There was definitely a way that could be treated, right?

“Why do you think the hospitals are closed?” Amy asked again, her seemingly endless questions sparking a deep annoyance within the eldest Harrison sister “because y’know it’s awfully inconvenient for…”

Her sister trailed off as the sight of the woman of the house once more appeared from the other room to kneel at Amy’s side, glass of water in one hand and what looked to be a small pill in the other.

Michonne shushed Terry’s whimpering as best as she could before she leant over to pry open his mouth with her fingers, tilting the glass upwards to allow both the water and pill to rush down the sick man’s throat.

Andrea could only watch with a morbid fascination as the man in general seemed to react negatively to the pill, writhing onto his side and within a matter of seconds (seconds that both Amy and Michonne took to move away from the side of the couch) spitting the substance back out with a weary shake of his head, eyes moving up from the floor to gaze at the stunned women in front of him.

“No, no…” He stammered before he crashed back onto his back on the couch, the arm wrapped up in a bandage starting to twitch as he placed it over his eyes, looking so pained that Andrea found herself getting up from her seat to kneel next to the man’s side, hands already grabbing at Terry’s own to still them so that Michonne – almost as if she knew Andrea’s intentions – could slowly start to peel away the bandages from his arm.

What was revealed there made all both Harrison sisters cry out in shock and for Michonne to back away from the feverish man, her brow furrowed and her lips parted already to call out. “Mike get in here! Did you know about this?”

It could only be described as gore. The skin around the bite had turned a horrible greyish colour and it looked as though it had become infected with what looked to puss dripping out of the bite which was so prominently deep that Andrea swore she could see bone gaping through the tendrils of skin that hung off Terry’s skin, the overall look making lawyer want to gag as the smell hit her fully in the face.

She covered the lower half of her face with her hand just as Mike came sprinting from the kitchen to see what the commotion was and Andrea found herself gawping in shock at the mild look that was the man’s expression, almost as if…

“That’s how much the bite took from him,” he told the three of them, walking over to Michonne and wrapping a lone arm around the woman’s waist, pulling him into her side so he could whisper in her ear briefly before returning his attention back onto the two sisters, “it’s why I couldn’t let you girls see, I didn’t think you’d allow us a ride back. I’m sorry for concealing the truth from you but I had to think of my family first, you understand right?”

Andrea’s jaw clenched and she took Amy by the hand, lifting her sister up to her feet as she glared at couple, “I can get why you didn’t reveal this to us because hell, I don’t think I would have believed it even if I saw it back then but that’s not the only truth you’re keeping from us is it?”

And what boggled her mind even more was how Michonne still seemed to believe that now wasn’t the time to talk.

“We’re not talking about this,” Michonne said with her brow arched threateningly, almost as if she was challenging Andrea to say otherwise – a challenge that Andrea was very much willing to accept until Michonne spoke again. “Terry comes first for us all right now and if the hospital won’t allow us in we’ll just have to get the next best thing.”

She gestured outside to the darkened streets, her gaze boring into Andrea’s own as they stared at one another, their locked eyes both full of a determination that many would have mistaken for passion if they looked long enough.

Andrea knew the look and she definitely knew the meaning behind it. “You want us to go outside?”

“I haven’t seen another human being apart from Mike and Terry in a week, the same amount of time the city’s been closed off to outsiders,” Michonne told her with a nonchalant shrug, “something’s been going on around here and Terry needs medicine to fight the fever off otherwise he’ll die. I’m not risking that.”

Mike moved away from his girlfriend to grab at her hips, spinning her around to face him, his expression concerned. “I’m not letting you go into those streets,” he said, hands tightening around the fabric of Michonne’s jeans, “not when we’ve been told to specifically stay put in our homes at night – just let the government sort it out Mich and then…”

Andrea reached out to squeeze Amy’s hand before sending her sister what she hoped was a look that Amy would be able to understand before she moved away, stepping forward and clearing her throat to grab Mike’s attention.

“She won’t be alone; I’ll go with her to get your friend’s medicine,” Andrea knew it would gain a gasp from her sister but she hadn’t expected the look of infuriation to cross the darker woman’s face at her words, “listen you can’t just go wandering the streets on your own at night, you’ll be more safe in my company.”

Michonne’s dark eyes were almost alight with something that easily could have been mistaken for amusement however Andrea knew it clear enough to recognize it as annoyance, “and how would I be safer? I work better on my own, everyone who knows me agrees to it.”

Andrea actually found herself becoming amused and with a roll of her eyes she withdrew her gun from the back of her jeans, presenting it to the couple with a smugness that she knew was clear from the glint of her eyes.

“A white girl with a gun,” Mike stated dryly, his tone clearly not pleased in the slightest at Andrea’s prodding on agreeing with his girlfriend’s crazy plan in the first place, “Why am I not surprised?”

Andrea’s face hardened and she folded her arms, “listen here, the fact is I’m coming with your girlfriend whether you like it or not: _end of discussion_.”

She turned away from the both of them to grab at her sister’s hands, pulling her along into one of the corridors that led to what she presumed to be the bathroom.

Her hand immediately wrapped around her sister’s neck and pulled her forward into a tight embrace, nose meeting the crook of Amy’s neck and breathing in the faint scent of her sister’s perfume, allowing it to fill her with a sense of reality and strength that made her practically melt into Amy’s embrace with a muffled dry sob that made her wrack against the warm body she held.

“Hey sis what’s all this about?” Amy’s voice came out teasingly but Andrea could still detect the concern within it anyhow and once more she allowed herself a teary smile at how very different her sister was and how that difference were one of the things that made Andrea love and worry about her so much, so much that she didn’t want to think of what could await her out in those streets. “Seriously Andrea it’s just the dark, it’s not like anyone’s going to come out and mug you or something.”

That made her laugh against her sister’s shoulder, not because what Amy had said was particularly funny but because it was so very Amy that Andrea actually found it hard to look at her even when she pulled back to grab at her sister’s cheeks, laughing fondly at the pout it brought.

“You’re seriously so weird,” Amy mumbled between pouted lips, shrieking in annoyance when Andrea squished her cheeks together to pull her forward to press a chaste kiss to her forehead, “ugh! Stop it already! I’ll be fine! Stop worrying and go get Terry some medicine so we can be on our way tomorrow!”

“Fine, but when I leave you don’t wander off and you stay with Mike and Terry, got it?” Andrea asked and when she received a nod she very reluctantly pulled away from her sister, turning to head back to the previous room where she saw that now Mike was the only one in there, his girlfriend gone and Terry now settled onto the armchair with his feet being plonked down on a coffee table as a foot rest.

“Michonne?”

Mike smiled sadly, looking so exhausted that it made Andrea feel sorry for him for a split second. “She’s gone to get dressed, she’ll be down soon,” he trailed off at the sight of her, as if he was finally recognizing her for who she was for the very first time, “and Andrea? Make sure she’s alright, yeah? My girl’s crazier than she looks.”

“Considering how she would rather be on her own I think she’ll be the one looking after me,” Her smile was fake but Andrea humoured the guy in spite of it, shrugging her shoulders and crossing her arms across her chest, “but don’t worry, I’ll try my best, just tell her I’m waiting out at the front of the house alright?”

She made her way down the corridor and was half way towards the front door when Mike called after her, making her pause in her step and turn back to see that the man was leaning up against the doorway, his smile fond and infectious.

“Thanks for helping me out,” he said with gentle eyes and a guilty tone that was a seemingly odd balance of the two, “even though I lied to you to get that help I’d like to thank you anyway and I promise you I’ll take care of your sister when you’re gone. It’s the least I could do.”

Andrea didn’t know what to say to the man, in spite of everything she knew that she would have to put her trust in him to look after Amy while she was gone and sure she had her suspicions on him but he didn’t look the sort to ever lay a finger on her sister, but this was the most oddest situation she had ever been in and so Andrea couldn’t help the doubts that sprung to the front of her mind even as she nodded and turned away from the man to walk back to the front of the house.

She tried to ignore the sensation of what felt like a heavy weight strangling her as she opened the door, but with every step she took the feeling didn’t go away.

Andrea didn’t know at the time but that feeling would not leave for a very long time.


	3. One Step Forward, Three Steps Back

**3 – One Step Forward, Three Steps Back**

* * *

**A** ndrea stepped out of Michonne's home to make her way over to the trunk of her car, quickly opening it up to grab her denim jacket and slipping it on her with a sigh that soon enough turned into one of exasperation at how Amy's luggage in particular was rammed in so carelessly it was no surprise that Andrea would obviously be the one fixing it.

She thought it was mildly funny that even in dire situations like this (and this was one of the direst Andrea had ever been in) she could find something to complain about that ended up being Amy's fault, it at least let her know that there was something out there that she could grasp onto without allowing her sadness to swallow her whole. Because it was lingering there, at the very back of her mind, lingering at how this damned trip was already turning out to be a disaster and how she had wasted months on planning it just so Amy could be comfortable.

And now this? Andrea let out an exasperated sigh, "unbelievable Amy, just unbelievable."

She's just cleaning up the awkward mess that her sister's left behind when she feels someone cough behind her, her immediate reaction being to turn around with her hand already flailing grab at the gun at the back of her pants, her fingers skimming the pistol lightly as she turned to come face-to-face with nobody other than the woman who's house she had just left behind her.

Michonne's brow was arched sceptically at Andrea's posture, "expecting someone else?"

Andrea, to her own credit, did her best to not show any fear at what the woman said and instead only snorted and resigned to rubbing away the fake dust from her jeans and smiling as though this woman didn't just scare the living daylights out of her moments ago.

"Didn't expect to be sneaked up on that's all," she said in a cheery tone that only made Michonne's brow arch even more, "uh, you ready to go? You're going to need to tell me where to go because I'm not [familiar](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9268780/3/The-Daily-Bleeds) with this neighbourhood."

"We're going on foot, the pharmacy isn't that far away," Michonne told her, pulling her own faded, denim jacket hoodie on and reaching up to pull it over her head, giving the woman a look of glumness that would have made Andrea smile any other time at how eerily it reminded her how she used to do that with her hoodie, "but first I'm going to check up on something."

Andrea nodded and closed the trunk of her car, turning to follow Michonne as the darker woman led her down the pathway of her garden and up to the street, stopping once when she got to the house next to her own to open up the gate and make her way up the [patio](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9268780/3/The-Daily-Bleeds) towards the house's entrance; leaving Andrea in a weird stupor as she watched in confusion as Michonne knocked on her neighbour's door.

"Shouldn't we…" She started to say before Michonne made a shushing noise, cutting her off as she continued to knock against the door, "oh right, talking is much noisier than _knocking_."

Michonne ignored her and continued to knock before seemingly growing discontent with the matter altogether, snorting at the lack of answer before making her way over to the fence that separated the neighbour's garden from the street before placing a hand on the fence and vaulting over it, using a strength that made Andrea's eyes widen and for her mouth to gape open uselessly at the sight of it.

And then it hit her.

"Hey that's private property!" She called after the woman, running after the woman in particular to poke her head around the fence, brow crinkling in impatience as she caught sight of Michonne looking through the windows of the house in search for someone or something, " _Michonne!_  Going on private property is  _illegal!_ "

And again Michonne ignored her, letting out a frustrated sigh when it looked like nobody was inside. She looked as though she was about to climb back over the fence before the woman surprised Andrea completely, choosing to instead kick the back door of the house in with a force that made the door rattle on its hinges as it flung back to hit the wall, granting the darker woman entrance.

The woman in particular smiled at Andrea, the sight of it shocking the blonde for a moment before she heard Michonne's next words.

"No,  _this_  is illegal." And with that she departed from Andrea to head into her neighbour's house, the sway of her hips almost mocking in a way that made Andrea roll her eyes and curse at Michonne under her breath.

She hopped over the gate after Michonne, muttering about how she really hoped these people were out so she wouldn't have to pause this trip any more than she already had just because of this woman's weird urge to break into her neighbour's home. No, she definitely was not putting this trip on hold, no way.

Making sure that nobody had seen them Andrea hurried her way inside the back of the house, spotting Michonne immediately as the woman went around testing out light switches and frowning when none of the lights seemed to work.

"Power's out?" Andrea suggested weakly, shrugging at the sour look the other woman sent her way, "Alright charmer, I'll stop pointing out the obvious if you stop glaring at me."

Michonne snorted, fiddling with the light switch a few more times before she gave up completely, giving Andrea a look that made the blonde smirk at how Michonne actually looked humbled for a split second.

"M'not glaring," the woman mumbled with a shake of her head, departing from her previous position to enter the living room of the house with Andrea hot on her heels, looking nervous as she took in the dark, almost gothic furniture, in the equally dark house they were inside.

Andrea let her eyes wander over the back of the woman's head and repressed a smug grin by instead moving past the darker woman, taking in the surroundings of the house around her. Pictures of the young family that had resided there were still hanging up on the walls and posters and sculptures were still in their proper place too, but yet the house was empty with nothing looking like it had been moved or taken away.

It was all so odd to look at and realize that nothing had actually changed, almost as if looking through a mirror and seeing her reflection stare right back and see that whilst you couldn't see anything that had changed physically it was quite obvious that  _something_  had changed.

Michonne had retreated into the back room of the house into what looked to be a dining area, her body hunched over something as she looked through cabinets and drawers. It made Andrea huff slightly, sure it was quite obvious this family had left the house but did that mean Michonne needed to come over and make it a mess? If the police ever found out Andrea would hopefully be far away from Atlanta as possible.

"Do you know the people who live here?" She asked instead, trying to block out the thought of tis family coming back and seeing her and Michonne rifling through their house like scavengers. She didn't want to refer to the family in the past tense either, sure it did look like the house had been abandoned for weeks but that didn't mean anything, they could have easily gone on holiday.

' _And leave their car still parked in the driveway?'_  Andrea thought to herself, irritated with how stupid she was being in thinking these people would actually come back,  _'it's obvious they've left the city or...'_

Her thoughts were interrupted by a large thumping noise from upstairs and with a gasp Andrea moved back a few steps, bumping into a cabinet and causing the vase on it to fall and break on the floor, smashing into tiny shards of glass and plastic near enough to Michonne that it made the darker woman retreat from where she had been searching through this family's drawers.

The look that Michonne shot her at least let Andrea know that the other woman too had heard the sound and with a brief nod the darker woman got up from her kneeling position, hands wrapped tightly around what looked to be some sort of long object covered in black cloth, said cloth falling away from the object when Michonne moved it away to reveal a sheathed sword that hung loosely from a thick piece of string.

Andrea was just about to protest ("we're stealing now?") but found herself growing silent when Michonne withdrew the blade, pointing it in Andrea's direction as she examined the blade in the moonlight that was filtering through the blinds of the window with an expression of something that resembled a smugness that made Andrea's brow furrow in confusion.

Michonne must have seen the look on her face because immediately she snorted and placed the sword back in its sheath, giving Andrea a look that made Andrea cock her head to the side in annoyance as if to say  _'well? What is all this about in the first place?'_

"If we're going outside and we've been told not to by the government," Michonne explained with a shrug of her shoulders, placing the sheath over her head so that the bundle could rest on her back, "then it seems to me we're going to need to be defended against whatever the hell we're up against. Besides, it's not like they're going to miss this if they didn't take it in the first place."

Andrea had been prepared to fight the other woman on this but actually Michonne was making some sort of sense about this and so with a sigh the blonde let the other woman be, her only action being to watch the darker woman walk past her once more to head back into the living room before then departing there to head towards the staircase, taking two steps at a time so Andrea had to rush to keep up with her.

From the looks of it they were going to investigate the sound that they had heard coming from one of the rooms here, a thump that still made Andrea nervous even as she rushed into the situation headlong behind Michonne, terrified but feeling utterly brave and excited at the same time. Perhaps that was what it was like to be a police officer and being on duty for the first time, though it made Andrea wonder what kind of person she was if she was getting excited over the thought of the potential  _crime_  that lingered inside this household.

"Get a grip Andrea," she muttered under her breath as she made her way down the corridor where Michonne was leading her towards a giant double wooden door, the door in particular looking as though it had been barred if the giant axe that had been shoved in between the handles were any indication of what had happened here.

Michonne looked back at her, her expression one of faint concern that didn't fail in making Andrea feel somewhat better even as she sighed and pushed past the other woman to grab the axe from in between the handles to allow the axe to swing in her hand whilst giving the woman behind her a smirk at the incredulous look she received in return, "by all means, _after you_."

The other woman mumbled something Andrea couldn't hear but took Andrea's invitation with ease, opening the door with a small gasp escaping her that made the blonde herself look up to echo it, heart jumping right up to settle in her mouth.

What stared back at them was a sight Andrea knew she wouldn't forget in a hurry, her eyes wide and her mouth agape in horror as the sounds of what  _looked_  to be the dead started to resound through the house in such a terrifying pitch that it reminded Andrea of the grating noise of teeth mixed with the sound of pained groans; the overall sound being so dreadful that it caused her to take a step back in an attempt to get away from it even as her eyes betrayed the instinct to rush away in the other direction.

Hollow, sunken eyes stared back at her, the white of them reflecting eerily in the moonlight that shone through the window ceiling that each thick strip of robe was tied to, the weight of the four bodies causing the window to stutter slightly with each slow swing of the bodies that writhed in impatience, an impatience that looked awfully like hunger, to get at the two women that watched the scene from below.

These bodies…They were of the family that Andrea had seen in the pictures downstairs, two young boys that didn't look over the age of fourteen wrestled with one another as they practically screeched trying to get loose from the bonds around their necks, the eeriness of it all becoming all too familiar with how they seemed more interested in Michonne and at how the woman with the sword that had belonged to their household was now circling around the four bodies, her features scrunched up into one of absolute confusion.

Andrea almost envied her, because how did Michonne make it able to be confused when there were four supposed to be dead bodies writhing furiously above them from the ceiling window? It made Andrea bristle and wonder for the other woman's sanity considering right now all Andrea could think of was how she most definitely wanted to be sick and that if she wasn't careful she actually  _would_  be sick what with the horrendous smell that accompanied the ghastly sight in front of her.

Logic tried to make sense of what she was seeing in front of her but Andrea knew better than anyone how little that would help now, especially once she caught sight of the two parents of these children and let out a gagging noise once she realized that half of the father's face had been off, revealing only a gushy red waste of bone and blood to drip down onto the wooden floorboards under them.

A drop of it hit her on the side of Andrea's face and ran down her cheek, the sensation of the thick liquid running down her skin making her shudder as she tried to combat her nerves (as well as her full stomach) to take a step around the huddled group of the dead that still writhed relentlessly to get at them.

"What the hell is going on?" Andrea asked the sword-wielding woman next to her, eyes wide in confusion and shock at the utterly calm look that was Michonne's expression, "they're dead but…They have to be dead! Right? Half of that woman's face is hanging off and I'm not…I'm not imagining this. I'm not…"

She pinched herself hard, hoping against hope that when she opened her eyes she would be back in the motel her and Amy had been in and this was all just some elaborate dream that she would be able to escape from the moment her eyes opened.

Michonne was in front of her when she did eventually open her eyes, the inky pools of the other woman practically striking Andrea into a state where her tongue felt as though it had swollen ten times bigger and her heart skipped a beat, simply not used to such overwhelming eyes in a situation that both intrigued her and terrified her.

The smack of lips and grinding teeth brought Andrea away from the intensity of Michonne's eyes to stare once more back up at the screaming dead above them, her face still formed into one of horror as the swinging noise of the bodies moving back and forth finally got to her and she turned her attention back onto Michonne.

"We should cut them down," she told the other woman, ignoring the bewildered look that she received in reply so she could carry on with her explanation, starting to circle the bodies once more to get a full look of them and the carnage that had been wrecked on each body, "the children especially, just look at them all… It looks like they've all been…"

"Eating one another," Michonne put bluntly, her eyes softening for a moment as she gazed upon the children who were now starting to pull and gnaw at each other whenever they banged into one another in mid-air, "I don't know what this is but it must have been going on for a week or so, about the same time as the government announcing it."

Andrea disagreed, "It can't have been a week since all this, don't you think the government would know something about this?"

"Why would the government care about this family? We don't even know what  _this_  is," And of course Michonne disagreed with her, it made Andrea wonder if the woman just heard what Andrea thought and decided that to piss her off she was going to disagree with it, "And this is just one family, on our way to the pharmacy we'll go by the station and see if there are any officers on duty there so they can clean up this…Whatever this is."

Andrea was just about to protest about leaving the family hanging there when she felt the younger woman brush past her roughly, sending Andrea back a few steps with a force that caused her to look up at the walkers hanging from the ceiling above her with a small sigh.

Her eyes lingered on the children and the axe in her hands, the urge to help these poor children almost unbearable to an extent that it made her want to cry frustrated tears but in the end, at the sound of Michonne thundering her way down the stairs Andrea lost the nerve to do so and with one last lingering look she slammed the door shut and followed the other woman down the stairs and back through the house to the fence they had both jumped.

The sounds, the smell, the skin, the blood, the guts…They were hard images to repress and as soon as Andrea managed to jump over the fence she pushed the darker woman away from her so she could be sick at her feet, the meal she had consumed before regurgitating right back up with a force that made her cling to her thighs in support of herself, only slightly pleased to remember that at the very least her hair was tied back and away from her eyes.

Andrea felt as though she had just vomited all the energy out of her, eyes slinking closed as the last of her strength faded from her and left her slumped against the fence of the house her and Michonne had been rummaging through as she panted heavily and wiped her mouth, thoroughly exhausted from her heaving.

When she finally managed to recover she felt Michonne's gaze on her and with a cough she gave the other woman a small, brief (and very much forced) smile, "sorry, it just took me by surprise back there."

Michonne made a small, disgruntled noise but made an effort to at least patting Andrea on the shoulder, giving some small of comfort even as she once more roughly pushed past her with a call of 'hurry up' to the blonde a few moments later. It was such a strange thing to Andrea, that this woman could be so casual for a moment and then so harsh the next, it was so unlike anything Andrea had ever experienced before and she found herself unable to keep up with the whirling thoughts in her head even if she tried.

She tried not to think about what she had just seen in the room of the house they had just left, fearing that if she did then she would hurl again. No, now was not the time and with a shake of her head Andrea jogged to catch up with the other woman as Michonne started to make her way up from her street at a pace that shouldn't have been as hard as it was to catch up with considering the other woman was almost a head shorter than her.

The woman gave her a look of concern before charging off in long strides, the clacking of her sword against her thighs being the only sound in the dismal silence of the streets they walked along with both their heads held up high in search for the pharmacy Michonne had mentioned.

Again she tried hard not to think of what had happened back at the house but the more she thought about it the easier it seemed to be on thinking what the hell had happened in there and if it could possibly relate to the situation in Atlanta, it at least had the possibility now didn't it? Everywhere she looked the houses lights were off, making them look abandoned and desolate, almost as if she was starring in one of those damn haunted movies Amy loved to watch so much.

At least when she risked a glance up she could see that Michonne wasn't acting all like herself either, the woman's hasty movements could be mistaken as impatience to any other person but Andrea knew better than to think that Michonne was not the least bit affected by what she too had seen back in the house.

Not that she knew the woman to make any assumptions of her, but if she had to guess…

The walk wasn't as long as Andrea had expected but it wasn't short either and many of times did she have to glance over her shoulder to see if they were being followed, the dark of the night bringing a sense of paranoia that she just simply couldn't escape no matter how hard she tried. But what did she expect? The dark wasn't a friend, especially with how much crap she had seen in the damn dark with what had happened to Terry and Mike outside the motel.

Still the night felt wrong and she was petrified that something was going to come out and take a chunk of out her like what had happened to Terry, something that seemed more and more likely now that she had seen what she had back in Michonne's neighbour's house.

That made her stop mid-step, the lack of echoing footsteps also making the sword-wielding woman stop and turn to look back at her with wide eyes that looked as though she was urging for the woman to hurry up.

"Those people back at the house," Andrea said, her own eyes wide as realization hit her straight in the face as the pieces she had felt didn't fit before finally started to fall into place for the first time, "the way they looked as though they were going to eat one another and then Terry getting bit by some guy that he takes a chunk out of his arm? It could be a connection of some sort, but what doesn't make sense is how this has only just come up now when this has been going for near enough a…"

Michonne cut her off with something that sounded like a mix between a growl and a grunt, spinning around on the spot to fix Andrea with a hard-eyed glare, "you have no idea what you're talking about, just drop the whole thing because that's  _not_ what we're going through these streets for now is it? I'm going to the pharmacy, but if you want to stand here and think up theories then be my guest, but I'm leaving."

And like that the woman had turned on her heel and was already making her way back through the streets of Atlanta, ducking and curving through an alleyway to her left without bothering to look back to see if Andrea was following her.

It made Andrea mutter angrily under her breath, the damn nerve of this woman was starting to get on her nerves and her refusal to think? It just made her more suspicious, just not suspicious enough to stop following her – unfortunate but true, it was almost as if some sort of instinct was keeping her following Michonne in the first place.

She ended catching up with Michonne near the bank that was at the end of the alleyway just opposite to the pharmacy of their destination, shocked to discover that the moment she had stepped through to go after Michonne the other woman pushed her back into the alley and up against the brick wall, covering her body with her own with such force it made Andrea's head slam back up against the mortar with a sickening cracking sound.

"What the fuck-" Andrea grunted before her mouth was covered by the palm of the other woman's hands, her wide eyes shushing Andrea just as much as the hand across her mouth.

Michonne gestured to her left with a jerk of her head, "Look."

Andrea followed the gesture and found herself relieved that Michonne's hand was covering her mouth, otherwise she wouldn't have known what she would have done apart from gasp out loud at the sight of what looked to be a group of five men that were moving slowly around the faint light the moon gave them.

When it felt like a whole ten minutes had passed Andrea was finally allowed to speak as Michonne's hand moved from her face, her whole body moving forward so fast that it almost made the other woman tumble back as she leered around the corner of the alley to stare out into the darkness of the pharmacy where she could see the figures starting to shift to and from the shelves of the pharmacy store.

"It's just people," she said with a shrug, moving away from Michonne's grip to start to make her way over to the open door of the pharmacy, throwing a bewildered look at the sword-wielding woman over her shoulder, "c'mon, you're not that afraid of social interaction right? They're probably looking for the same thing as we are."

She heard Michonne hiss behind her but the sound of her footsteps following her was more than enough reason not to turn back, glad that finally it seemed like she was able to take control of the situation without following Michonne around like some stupid puppy dog.

However that control seemed to vanish the moment she realized that the pharmacy doors were actually  _locked_.

Andrea tugged on the brass handles of the pharmacy doors, her confused expression becoming more and more apparent as she tugged harder and harder until she grew so frustrated she let out a small grunt of anger and stood back, hands on her hips as she looked into the closed doors of the pharmacy to see the five figures still moving around in there.

"Hey!" She called out to them, banging her fist on the glass of the door to try and gain their attention whilst completely ignoring Michonne's pleas for her to be damned quiet, "Hey you in there! Are you with the pharmacy? Can you open this door up? Me and my friend need to get inside!"

The banging did manage to catch their attention apparently for Andrea watched with a smug smile as each and every one of the shadowy figures stopped for a second before turning towards the sounds of her fist slamming against the glass pane of the pharmacy's windows.

"See?" She said to Michonne with a small laugh and a shrug of her shoulders, turning away from the pharmacy to give the other woman a smile, "I told you that they're just people in the pharmacy, this way we won't have to wait until tomorrow morning to get the medicine for Terry."

"Getting medicine for Terry in the morning was never an option in the…" Michonne was just about to tell the blonde woman off (that Andrea could tell by how she had rested her hands on her hips with her head cocked to the side) before she was cut off by the sound of a whole group of muffled, gargled growls that filled the streets of Atlanta.

Andrea and Michonne both jumped back from the pharmacy's window, the sword that Michonne had thrown over her shoulder immediately coming out and the axe Andrea had dropped to the floor to tug on the doors already back in her hand as the both of them took in the sight of five people pressed up against the glass panes of the windows with snapping jaws and wide eyes.

The same wide eyes of hunger that they had seen shining in the family they had left around half an hour ago, and if that didn't give it away? Then the look of rotting flesh and the way one of the people had actually lost an  _arm_  was enough to tell Andrea that whatever the hell was up with the family had also occurred with these people in the pharmacy as well.

Apart from the fact that unlike she had been at the house Andrea found herself feeling more and more horrified and angry all mixed up into one at the sight before her, her heart thudding so loudly in her chest she wasn't quite sure if the fear that was so apparent to her was because of the fear at the monsters in front of her or the fear she would actually have a damn heart attack if she wasn't careful.

Michonne on the other hand had such a tight grip on Andrea's shoulder that when the woman squeezed it Andrea let out a loud gasp of pain, glaring over at Michonne with her features scrunched up in pain and irritation, "hey would you mind…"

"What is  _this?_ " Michonne whispered in disbelief, letting go of Andrea's shoulder to knock the handle of the sword up against the glass pane of the pharmacy store, sending the blonde woman a look of clear disbelief as her actions only seemed to intensify the haste of these monsters clawing to get at her.

"One time, okay," Andrea said, her grip on the axe tightening as she stared into the pharmacy's windows, "but two times? Are you seriously telling me you had no idea this was happening? How could you not have any idea that the  _dead_  were roaming the streets?"

Michonne looked as frustrated at herself as Andrea did, "I don't know! Me, Mike and Terry didn't go out anywhere but our street and whenever we wanted to leave the city the guard there always let us out and the  _radio_ kept saying everything was under control and there were more and more people leaving to go to the hospital, some that didn't even come from Atlanta in the first place…"

Andrea studied the group of dead that banged against the glass of the pharmacy's windows, she didn't understand much on how this had been kept so hush hush but it didn't matter because this…It had to be real, hadn't it? It made no sense but it had to be real otherwise, otherwise…

The grip on the axe loosened and with a muffled groan she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, "this  _whole_  situation is fucking crazy…"

And as if to prove her wrong the both of them was met with the sound of a crazy yelling inside the pharmacy, startling them both from their musings on how to get the medicine inside to see that within moments the banging of the dead against the glass suddenly vanished to be replaced with a loud yelling noise and the sound of something sharp slicing through something thin and papery.

The sound of blood hitting the windows of the pharmacy shocked Andrea once more from her thoughts, causing her grip on the axe to loosen even further as she took in the sight of the large blood splatter that had replaced the sight of the dead and how that too meant next to nothing when seconds later the glass broke as one of the bodies in particular flew out of it to land right in front of the two women.

"A little fuckin' help would be appreciated in here!" Came a cry from the pharmacy, startling them both into action as they headed towards the large hole that had been revealed after the dead's hasty exit from it.

Michonne went immediately towards the call for help however Andrea hesitated, eyes drawn to the dead that lay at her feet to examine it as carefully. The head of the dead in front of her had looked like it had been smashed to a bloody pulp before it had been kicked out of the pharmacy window, the carnage of the remains clear enough that it made Andrea gag slightly as the decay of the remains hit her full front in the face.

The only thing that stood out to her as well as the smell was the fact that the only similarity this body held to the others they had found was that it was one of the dead, yet the similarities stopped there as Andrea took into the account that the freshness of the body indicated that it hadn't been dead for long and as well as that the body itself didn't look as though it had been eaten apart from one lone bite that was clear on the body's neck, making it look more like a vampire bite than anything.

Another yell from the window made Andrea start and with a gasp she charged forward and into the darkness of the pharmacy, eyes searching for anything that would tell her what the hell was happening inside this store and the moonlight gave little to no help, especially when almost as soon as she had into the pharmacy a shelf had collapsed behind her to block away the little moonlight available.

And that was before she felt rotting fingers grab at her shoulder to spin her around to come face-to-face with one of the dead that she had seen at the window, the fear at seeing the hunger in the dead's eyes making her yell in fright and for her to drop her axe at the shock as hungry jaws started to open and lean towards her face.

She didn't know what the hell was going on and that showed by how little she tried to move away from the dead was moving down to take a bite at her, but before she even did have time to get her bearings she was met with the dead in front of her head crushing, the splatter of blood with it near blinding her as the dead in front of her collapsed into a heap.

Andrea didn't have time to thank her saviour before they had moved past her, the rough barge against her shoulders and the muscle she felt during the force enough to tell her that this was definitely the guy who had called out to them, and that was more than enough for her to know that if this man needed her help then she would try and help in return.

She made a grab for her dropped axe and followed the figure through the darkness of the pharmacy (eyes still roaming to look for Michonne at all times), ducking and weaving between fallen stalls and shelves and moving out of the way as soon as the figure came across another of the dead, slamming his weapon (which turned out to be a baseball bat) against the heads of the stumbling biters that they came across until all that was left was damaged brains and skin.

Whilst there had only been five who had been knocking at the window it seemed that there were at least nine of these dead walking around, dead that only remained dead when their heads suffered an impact so great that they staggered slightly before falling to the ground with such force that it made the ground underneath Andrea's feet shake; something that Andrea quickly learned herself when she turned slightly to the right to be met with two of the dead lunging at her.

And once again she hesitated. These were people…People that looked dead yes, but was this instead some sort of infection, the reason why people were being ushered into the hospital in the first place? How could she kill someone, knowing that in truth they were nothing more but infected and could be treated later?

That decision however was taken out of her hands as a glint of silver flashed through the air, startling her backwards until she hit the corner of one of the shelves with a force that made her hiss in pain even as her eyes rested on the now two decapitated heads that practically flew from their bodies to land at her feet with a loud thud as their now motionless bodies soon followed them straight after.

"Don't just stand there man!" She heard the male call out to her again, the term he used to address her with making her bristle slightly in indignation, "you want them to bite you? No? Then smash their damn brains in!"

Andrea whirled at the sound of gnawing jaws behind her and with a yell she pushed at the chest of one of the biters making its way towards her, her hand wielding the axe shaking as she raised it to slam the blunted blade against her attacker's head, the force behind her swing causing the biter to collapse to the floor in a heap.

It was as if that movement caused the whole room to collapse into silence, the only sound truly being heard were the loud sounds of deep breathing coming from each of them in the pharmacy, the rugged, deep breaths of the man Andrea had been following stopping to be replaced with small gasps of words as the man that had saved them now desperately tried to speak.

Michonne met her gaze and at once the both of them looked their saviour over with mounting interest; he was a middle-aged man who didn't look anything over 35 with a moustache that was flecked with the same grey that his trucker hat covered over his sweat-stained locks that sat messily on the top of his head – he was definitely not the sort of man Andrea was expecting to take on this small group of the dead, but then again from the things that was happening? Maybe she should stop expecting altogether.

The man shrugged at her silence, looking somewhat indifferent to the fear in her eyes, "ya'll never killed a walker before I'm guessin'," and before Andrea could answer to that he had wiped his bloodied hands on the back of his jeans to stick out to her, "name's Kenny by the way, was just passing through here to get to the hell outta Atlanta and saw that you attracted the walkers in here."

"So you diligently offered your services," Michonne said before Andrea could even get a word in on what the hell was doing on around here, "the pharmacy door was locked, how did you even get in here without breaking the glass?"

Kenny who at least looked like he didn't mean them any harm (which of course didn't mean Andrea was dropping her axe for anyone's business) suddenly turned on the sword-wielding woman, his hands holding the baseball bat getting considerably tighter around the curve of the bat as he glared at the darker woman.

"What you think that I saved your asses out of the good of my heart? Hell, ya'll need to understand that with the noise these walkers were making if I didn't get rid of them quick there would be more of them," Kenny explained, the calm in his voice not matching at all with the angry stance he had taken in addressing the woman in front of him, "I got a family man! I needed to get rid of them to protect them, but with the noise you two were makin'? You're just lucky I managed to get rid of them before the rest of these biters came out of the woodworks to chomp at ya'll."

A voice from one of the back rooms seemed to flitter inside the pharmacy, so quiet that Andrea had to strain to hear it.

"Kenny? Kenny is everyone okay?" The voice was definitely female; the voice of his wife more than likely but from the way Michonne was eyeing the door that the voice was coming from with such suspicion? Andrea wouldn't even be shocked if she was hearing things with what she had seen today.

"We're fine Kat, just keep quiet and try not to wake the boy," Kenny called back to his 'wife' softly before turning his attention back to the both of them, specifically Michonne, "ain't I even getting a thank you from you two?"

Michonne didn't seem convinced of his motives: "That still doesn't explain how you got in here if the pharmacy was shut, or how you knew what to do with these…"

Andrea wished she had the other woman's patience, but she didn't and that was why she interrupted the two of them, coming in between them to look the now nervous looking man straight in the eye with her own gaze hardened in an attempt to show that she meant serious business here.

"Forget that right now, I want to know what the hell is going on," she motioned to the lifeless bodies at their feet, "first off, what are these things right here? Secondly I want to know how nobody knew about these damn things without sending off some…"

Kenny placed both of his hands up to silence her, a heaving sigh escaping him as he took in the sight of the frustrated blonde woman in front of him, "I don't know everythin' but I can tell ya'll what I know and see where that gets you, okay?"

Andrea nodded whilst Michonne rolled her eyes and snorted, already making her way down the shelves in what the blonde presumed to be in search for the medicine that she would need to help Terry back at her home.

"Right, well, ain't going to be no easy way to tell this so I'll just get to it," Kenny started with a deep breath, leaning the majority of his weight against the counter of the pharmacy, "First time I saw it? Few days ago just before we left my wife's sister's, wasn't even outside the border with my family before I had to pull over cause I saw some poor fucker half outta his mind in the road. He looked like he ain't had a meal in days and his clothes were filthy as shit, but yeah, you know my wife, she's got a soft heart ain't she? Made me pick the guy up and drive him to the nearest hospital outside of the city."

He took a moment to pause in his story, eyeing Andrea with an uncertainty that had the blonde reaching cautiously for the gun in the back of her jeans. She didn't know this guy, didn't know his intentions and even if she was still aghast at the fact that she had put down…whatever it had been that she had attacked, it still wasn't on her agenda to try and hurt this man.

Luckily for him the uncertainty in his eyes changed swiftly to one of grief as Kenny continued his story: "Well the guy didn't want that, he said he had to get to Atlanta before he went crazy and well, ya'll know well as I do that there's different sorta crazies right? I didn't know what he meant! We drove as fast as we could, me, my boy, my wife and this crazy fucker who kept mumbling about god and whatnot, hell he was like some deranged animal the way he was talkin'."

"And that ain't even the worse of it," he turned away from her to take the hat away from his head, mussing up his hair with a loose sigh escaping him, "when we got to the hospital in Atlanta we thought that would be the end of it but the hospital kept all of us inside, 'no leaving until everything is sorted' they said. Sort what, right? We stayed in that hospital for two days with this guy we didn't even know before…Before we found out the hard way about what was goin' on around here."

Michonne's snort was still able to be heard even as Kenny continued to speak, the noise causing the man to pause in hesitation whereas it caused Andrea to glare in the other woman's direction in hope that the woman would shut up long enough that she would be able to get some more damn details off the guy.

She nodded at him, "Carry on."

"Watched the fucker's heart stop myself," he told her with a shake of his head, "the nurse was 'bout to carter him away before I saw him come back to life and tear her goddamn face off. After that? Busted my way out of that hospital so fast I ain't had time to breathe since then, especially with me defendin' my family from a herd of damn biters."

Andrea tried not to let herself get distracted but she couldn't help herself and thus she had to ask, "Biters? You call them that because of the whole…"

"Eating thing? Fuck yeah," Kenny said with a snort, giving her a glance that told her the man was quickly losing his patience with her and her questions, "that and the fact that when you get bit then you're fucking gone, ya'll one of them in minutes once the fever starts and ya'll burn out, well, that's what the ones I saw were like anyway, and it's a good thing we got out of that hospital in time before they all went up to hell and started letting those crazy ass biters escape the…"

Andrea hadn't been truly listening properly it seemed because in moments Michonne had drawn her sword on the guy, her body tense in such a way that Andrea was frightened that if she dared touch her then she might get cut in the process; so instead she had to resort to using her mouth instead, her body moving by instinct to circle the sword-wielding warrior in an attempt to calm her.

That didn't go well, even when she was only a few feet away from Michonne who in answer to Andrea's closeness stepped back, eyeing them both with anger and a hint of what looked to be fear in her dark, brown eyes.

Kenny didn't look so kind and friendly now and with a gasp Andrea moved away from the man when he pulled out a large kitchen knife from the side of his jean pockets, a poor weapon against Michonne's own but Andrea wasn't going to test him either way; not unless she wanted to draw anymore attention to them than she already had with her screams.

"Now you listen here lady I ain't got time for your bullshit so I'd suggest you put that…" Kenny started before he was cut off by Michonne's blade being thrust near his face, robbing the man of speech as he looked down at the sharp blade with a gulp.

"What did you say about bites?" Michonne asked the man, her tone stating clearly that she was in no mood for any hesitation or games and that instead she just wanted answers, answers that Andrea herself founded wanting after the realization on why Michonne was asking settled to the front of her mind.

The older man looked as though he was looking for a place to escape to next but once he realized that there was truly no escape from each of the women he instead just sighed, settling himself back against the counter of the pharmacy with a grunt, "well you heard didn't ya? One bite, that's all it takes and then, wham, that's it. No more of us living anymore, which is why it's such a damn good thing most of the infected are in the hospital or whatever and it's closed off otherwise…"

Michonne had turned away from the man as soon as she had gotten the information she had needed, her departure so hasty that she had forgotten the satchel she had thrown over her shoulder that held the medication from the pharmacy in the first place which left Andrea watching her leave with her mouth open in shock as Kenny in front of her continued to babble on even without Michonne's presence being there.

Andrea didn't waste any time either, she knew where Michonne was heading back to and if the worst had come to pass then…

' _Oh my god, Amy's in there!'_

She turned away from the man and rushed to grab the bag Michonne had left behind, throwing a quick ' _thank you_ ' over her shoulder Andrea rushed from the pharmacy to follow her way back through the streets and alleys to Michonne's house.

He hadn't answered all her questions but that seemed irrelevant right now, especially when everything that she  _had_  heard had started to fit into place like some bizarre jigsaw puzzle that showed an image that Andrea had never, ever wanted to see in the first place.

A snarl to her right startled Andrea just as she was about to make her way out of the alley and head back towards the street where she could see her car was parked and with a yell of surprise she rounded on the source of the sound, the axe in her hand whirling forwards to lop off the head of a biter ("because of the bite, the bite, the bite,  _the bite_ ,") who she had to jump over as they fell at her feet.

Andrea didn't stop to check who the poor bastard was, didn't even stop to consider that once more she had killed another potentially living victim (they couldn't all be dead, could they, there had to be some sense in them, right?) because all her mind screamed at her right now was four names.

Amy, Mike, Terry…

 _Michonne_ …

When Andrea got to the door of the house she didn't waste any time to show something that would resemble chivalry, instead bursting her way through the door with her shoulder and Amy's name streaming past her lips as she looked in search for her sister in the darkened halls of the house.

" _AMY!"_  She cried out, closing the door behind her and rushing into the living room where she had last seen her young sister, stopping midway as she caught sight of the scene that awaited her.

Michonne was slumped on the carpeted rug of the floor, the large tendrils of dark hair over her head was now a mess of curls and dreads that was coated with what looked to be black blood, the same sort of blood that…

And that was when Andrea saw the cause of it.

Just in front of Michonne lay Mike, his face torn to something almost unrecognizable as though he had been chewed on, his skeleton poking out of the skin left on his face to give such a imagery of the horrors that had been inflicted on him that when Andrea took a full look she couldn't help the gasp that escaped her mouth.

There was no way Mike could have survived his injuries, not with the way he had been ripped apart so diligently, it was almost as if someone had starved for days and had used Mike as one last good meal with only the scraps remaining… It was a sight that made Andrea's stomach heave, and that was before her eyes fell on the snarling sound that was coming beside the dead man in front of Michonne.

Her hand flew to her face as the worst she had come to fear actually became a confirmation for her, "Terry…"

A snarling, mindless walker growled up at her, his hands that weren't trapped under the table that had been thrown on him trying to reaching for her as his jaw contorted and twisted in such angles that shouldn't have been possible, the whites of his eyes visible and full of unspeakable hunger that to see it made Andrea cringe at each grind of teeth she heard coming from Terry's mouth.

Had he been the one to do this to Mike? It seemed likely but then where was…

"Amy?" She stammered at the shaking woman slumped in front of her, not expecting an answer either way as she moved past the carnage to look for her sister, "Amy! Amy! Amy, where are you?!"

A thump from the corner of the room and within seconds Andrea found herself enveloped in warm arms, her sister's blonde locks flying into her face so forcefully it caused her to sneeze at the impact almost immediately, but she didn't care – Amy was here, Amy was alive…

"I was  _so_  scared," she heard her sister whisper in her ear, the pained tone not lost on her whatsoever, "Terry just started to shake and Mike told me to go hide because he didn't know what was going on and he said I should only come out when you and Michonne were back and now I'm… I'm so, so scared Andie…"

Andrea just held Amy tighter, spinning her around to hide the horrific scene from her sister's eyes, "It's okay Amy, I'm here now and we're going to be fine. Just, just don't look at…"

"Get out," Michonne's voice interrupted all of a sudden and when Andrea broke apart from her sister (ignoring Amy's horrified gasp as she saw the sight Andrea had desperately wanted to hide from her sibling) she saw that the darker woman had her sword back in her hand and was pointing it at the snarling Terry whilst her eyes – full of remorse and anger – were staring straight at them.

It didn't matter either way, Andrea had decided, she wasn't going to let Michonne stay here by herself with these two dead men who had the potential to bite and infect her too. She didn't know the woman, not very well or at all, but she wasn't going to let her die either.

"Michonne…" Andrea started to say, reaching out to try and touch the other woman by the shoulder to show that she meant no harm, "Michonne can we talk about…"

Michonne whirled on her, her breathing heavy whilst her grip on the sword tightened as she now pointed it at the both of them before gesturing to the door down the hallway, "I  _said_ get out!"

Amy tensed up behind her in fear, that signal alone being enough to tell Andrea that she had little to no other choice but to listen to what Michonne said in case the woman decided to go crazy and hurt them but there was still the fact on where to go, surely Michonne wouldn't let them go out there alone, especially knowing what was out there?

So she tried again, one last time, "Michonne where are we going to go? You saw those walkers in the pharmacy, what if there's more out there?"

"Not my problem anymore," Michonne said angrily, gesturing at the door once more with her lower lip jutted out angrily, "I won't say it again."

Andrea physically slumped and took her sister's hand, leading her away from the destruction that was still so clear in her mind's eye that it made Andrea dread to think what Amy thought of it.

She couldn't let it worry her though, not now, because now? She needed to figure out where to go, a place where she and Amy would be safe away from these 'walkers' that were starting to litter the area with their presence.

A cry from the house next door made Andrea's head jerk in that direction, her brow furrowed inquisitively at the sound.

"It's okay Amy, I have an idea."


End file.
